Today started out sunny again but very windy. We headed out east of Donegal into Northern Ireland.
Tully Castle was our first stop. It is a ruin of a 17th century manor house. We could not see inside. Later we saw Monea Castle also a 17th century manor house but a larger one. We were able to see inside. Not many of the castles built during this era survived the raids by the English. Now it costs too much money to restore them.
It is now raining so we decided to go to the Marble Arch Caves. There are 150 steps down to the cave, so that I decided not to go. Charles went but it was a shortened tour as there has been too much rain. The lower levels are flooded. Charles was lucky as he was in the cave for the worst of the rain.
Soon we were heading back to Donegal. On the way we stopped at Belleek China. They had some beautiful and unique china. My favourites were the woven baskets. They were delicate and expensive.
We wanted to be back to the B&B to rest up for the evening dinner show we were going to. For €20 each we had a wonderful traditional lamb stew and bread pudding for dessert and the show later. The Slice of Ireland show started at 8:30. There was a sell out crowd. What a wonderful show. The band was great. We knew a lot of the songs so were able to sing along. There was a lot of hand clapping and foot stomping. It was to be over around 10:30 but went on till after 11. I don't think many people wanted it to be over. We learned about the Uilleann Pipes which are Irish bag pipes. The difference is that the player has a bellows around his waist which he operates with his arm rather than blowing into the pipes. This makes a different sound than the Scottish pipes. We first saw these pipes used in the River Dance production but did not know how they worked. The manager of the hotel also sang 3 ballads throughout the evening. Just an amazing evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment